Dreams of Life
by NightOwl2022
Summary: The story of one man's struggle to overcome pain and torture. There is also a 'forest gump' type thing goin on, since he is so old (close to 4000 near the end) he has memories of his involvement in nearly every important event of the last eon.


Typical Disclaimer: The characters and events in this story are based on a show that I have no right or claim to. This is simply a fan-made fictional side story with no direct relevance to the plot or time-line in the show. Tenchi Muyo is owned by AIC/Pioneer and I give full credit to Mr. K, and his team of talented artists and writers.  
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Dreams of Life (part 1): Chapter One [The First Encounter]  
by Seth Murray (NightOwl2022)  
  
Mel'Kan blinked in the darkness. For a moment he thought he was back on Jurai. But the confusion was fleeting, just as everything else in his life. In his three thousand years of life he had seen and learned much, yet looking back, it all seemed so short. There was alot that stood out: his training, his graduation, his first job, and, most of all, his recognition as the greatest warrior the galaxy had ever seen.  
*Hmmp, 'Greatest Warrior', my ass*, he thought in contempt. *There were plenty of Juraians better than me.* And in reality, he was correct. He never had any idea why people made such a fuss over him.  
"Its because your not Juraian," the king had once told him, "You give the people someone to respect...someone just like them."  
*Well, they used to respect me, anyway,* he thought, *now they just spit on my grave.*  
The memories were flooding back now. He didn't want to remember, but there was no resisting. He closed his eyes, and drifted back to sleep...  
  
Mel'Kan nearly jumped out of his cot when the alarm went off. His eyes darted around the small room, taking in his surroundings completely. He relaxed as his solutitude was confirmed.  
"Sir!"  
Severely startled, Mel'Kan fought the urge to attack the area of the ceiling where the voice of his onboard computer came from. In fact, after so many years of physical and mental training, he displayed no outward reaction at all. Not even the slightest tensing of his neck. He found comfort in little things like that.  
"Sir?"  
"I heard you the first time, Yokano," he replied. "Status?"  
"I have detected an unusual disturbance in the region of space directly in front of us, Sir. I believe that there may be need for course correction," Yokano replied.  
"Then make the correction...wait," Mel'Kan thought back to his now rapidly fading dream. He didn't feel like reliving the past anymore today. "I'll be right up."  
"Very well, Sir. I shall hold our current position."  
*We've already stopped?*, he thought. *We must already be upon it.*  
Mel'Kan couldn't shake the feeling in the pit of his stomach, that this was a bad thing.  
Seconds later, he was on the bridge of his small craft. *Small but powerful. If we're in trouble I can think of nowhere I'd rather be.*  
Yokano immediately began filling him in on the 'anamoly' that was looming ever so close on the forward screen. Mel'Kan was not paying direct attention to the voice of his computer, but he was absorbing all the information incase it became important later. Yokano rambled on about the subspace displacement ratio and the ever so slight gravitational invariance, that led him to discover this very well hidden obstacle.  
"In fact, any less sophisticated scanner array would've missed this one completely," Yokano stated.  
"Are you bragging, my friend?" Mel'Kan asked.  
"Of course not, Sir. I'm simply pointing out our fortune that I was so recently overhauled."  
"Heh, I'm glad you're glad. But I still would not have had it done if the decision had been mine." The repairs had been part of his severance from the Juraian Royal Guard. To Mel'Kan it was merely a reminder that he was still indebted to Azusa. Perhaps 'indebted' was the wrong word...more like 'honorbound'. He fought with his heart, telling himself that Azusa's decision had been forced.  
He closed his eyes, there was no need to think about that now.  
"Something wrong, Sir?"  
"No, Yokano. This object would no doubt be facinating to the passing scientist or graduate student, but what about it warranted breaking my sleep cycle?"  
"Oh...I thought you'd be interested, Sir."  
"That's all?!" There was a wave of relief tinged with a little regret that there really was nothing to do but return to his sleeping compartment.  
"Well..." Yokano, seemed hesitant for some reason. "There IS a slight problem."  
"Really." Now Mel'Kan was worried. He had never known Yokano to react like this.  
"It would seem that this 'object' is following us, Sir."  
"What?!" Every warrior's instinct was screaming at him now. It was all he could do to keep still in his seat. *What is wrong with me today? I'm not usually this jumpy*  
"I had already made two course corrections in as many hours before I roused you, Sir. However, I was unsuccessful in avoiding this anamoly. I wouldn't be so concerned if it were behind us, perhaps then its strange movements could be attributed to an irregularity in our drive system..."  
"But its not behind us." Mel'Kan interrupted. "Is there any reason not to assume that this is a threat...perhaps even a cloaked vessel?"  
"If it is a cloaked vessel then it is of no type of cloaking technology that I am aware of, Sir."  
"You have already ruled out all known forms of stealth tech? What kind of mods did those Jurian boys make to your system?"  
"It was a complete rebuild, Sir. The only thing still intact from the original is my personality and memory routines." Yokano responded a little smuggly.  
Mel'Kan was a little confused by Yokano's tone, but he tried not to be too transparent about it. "So, back to this object that is blocking our way. Can you rule out a ship?"  
"No. But if it is a ship, I do not understand how it can be in such a state."  
"What do you mean?"  
"I am confused as to how the ship's mass could be so varied. Ah, well, I'm having trouble placing it into words." Yokano actually sounded confused, apparently his personality hadn't been left completely untouched.  
"Don't worry about explainations now, I'll have one of my friends at the Science Academy explain it all to me later."  
"Very well, Sir." After a moment, Mel'Kan glanced down at the various readout screens before him. He had always prefered tactile/visual interfaces to audio ones anyway. As he poured over the numbers confronting him, something to the far right of his field of vision caught his attention. He snapped his head around and searched the space beyond his side port. This was an actual window into space and not a holographic representation like most of the rest of his cockpit. He looked hard for what had moved, but could find nothing. It crossed his mind that it was his imagination, after all, he was interrupting his normal sleep period. But Mel'Kan was not the sort to doubt himself. He had seen too much, and proven his instincts right too many times to second guess a gut feeling.  
He leaned closer to the transparent alloy, trying to expand his field of vision. Then everything seemed to happen at once. He was thrown forward as Yokano executed a blindingly fast reverse spin maneuver. The stationary stars that he was using as reference points were suddenly dancing in all directions. He fought his way back into his seat as the inertial stablizers inside the ship tried to catch up with the surprise movement.  
"What is it?!" He shouted as he triggered the emergency straps on his seat, and switched the cockpit over to combat mode. An impressive array of new commands and controls appeared all around him, and it all seemed to be miraculously within comfortable reach. He really had to hand it to those Juraian tech boys, they knew their stuff.  
"There is an aggressor to the lower port moving starboard. He fired once at what would've been a direct hit to the lower shield generator had I not out-maneuvered the blast."  
"Good boy," was all Mel'Kan could think to say. Yokano growing a proud streak after all these years still had him a little off balance. He glanced quickly through his legs at the attacking ship, but it was moving too fast to get a good look at it. "I've never seen anything move like that, what is your analysis, Yokano?"  
"I can not determine the means of propulsion, its as though its manipulating the very gravitational fields of the surrounding stars. No, that cannot be right..."  
"Can you outfly it?!"  
"In a dead heat, I believe so, but I am by no means capable of moving in all directions with the fluidity and speed of that craft. And I have yet to determine its peak velocity."  
"OK, we won't win in an all out dogfight...do you think you can even hit it?"  
"My targeting system is obviously superior to his, but I still don't think that I could, Sir."  
"Give me full turret control, then...I'll take a crack at it myself!" But just as he felt the controls begin to respond to his movements, he caught a glimpse of something else, this time to the left.  
"SIR!!" Yokano, sounded frantic.  
"I see it, just concentrate on staying away from that fast-mover!" Mel'Kan had no time to worry about why this new ship had unnerved Yokano, or how TWO ships could've gotten so close without more warning. *Who could these guys be? What do they want from me? Are they hunters that have mistaken me for a bounty?*  
All questions could be answered later, right now he had to focus totally on the battle. But things weren't going all that well. Everytime he got a lock on the first bogey, Yokano would have to pull off a new string of maneuvers to stay away from the blasts coming from this new, much bigger, ship. There was no time left for words, and Mel'Kan knew a losing situation when he saw one. He carefully gauged the distance between the two attackers, and tried to get a feel for their speed and direction. All this in the space of half a second.  
"Manual flight!" he shouted. Yokano, instantly released the helm. Mel'Kan felt the pressure around his hands and feet as the control systems locked onto his every movement. "Take weapons!"  
"Sir," Yokano replied smartly. It seemed that he was finally getting a grip on the situation. The casual observer might have been confused as to why the pilot seemed to be calmer than his ship, and duly so. However, Mel'Kan just found it infuriating.  
*Those damn tech boys are going to have alot of explaining to do when I catch them,* he thought. There was nothing he hated more than surprises, and this one couldn't have come at a worse time.  
He was pushing the little ship for all it was worth. His old flight instructor would've been proud...were he still alive. *What is this, bad memory day?!* Mel'Kan was beginning to lose his characteristic "calm in the midst of the storm", his trademark and namesake. He tried to ignore his mental battle and focus on the outer one.  
The Yokano was just coming out of a very tight turn at full conventional speed. Mel'Kan could feel the ship starting to buckle under the stress. At least the small brown ship had been shaken for the moment. Mel'Kan was trying to give Yokano a chance to get a good shot off at the much slower moving ship now on the forward monitor. *Wow, that thing's pretty big...I wonder if we've got anything heavy enough to disable it.*  
"Fire, Yokano!! What are you waiting for?!"  
"Sir, such a course of action would be totally ineffective against that ship, we are far outclassed."  
Dread began to sink in. "I take it you've finished the analysis on our attackers."  
"Yes, Sir. I am unable to find any match for the small vessel in any GP or Juraian database. However the large ship has been identified and confirmed."  
"Well? Spit it out, boy!" Was it just his imagination or did Yokano's voice quaver just now.  
"It's the Soja, Sir."  
It took only a nanosecond for that name to ring every alarm bell and confirm every fear he'd had all day. It was the one man in all the galaxy that Azusa feared. The one man in all the galaxy that Mel'Kan actually hesistated to take on. The one name that struck fear in the hearts of every inhabitant of a third of the planets in known space.  
"Kagato," Mel'Kan breathed involuntarily.  
Mel'Kan felt his grip slipping. He was no longer in control of this situation...he never had been. *Was this a trap? Of course it was, why else would he have blocked our path three times? Why me?*  
In the second he hesitated, the small brown ship overtook him. He released the throttle, and was intantly flanked by either ship.  
"Sir? SIR!! What are you doing!" Yokano wasn't just frantic anymore, he was hysterical.  
*Yep, I'm going to kill those tech boys when I find them*  



End file.
